(Prologue, v. 1)
The Prologue to the Rule is much more than an introduction to be hurriedly read; it is itself an invitation into the very life which the rest of the Rule describes. We cannot rush through the Prologue. We must spend our time here.
We must stop at the very first sentence: “Listen carefully, my son, to the master’s instructions and attend to them with the ear of your heart.” It will take more than one post to adequately explore these words.
The whole Rule turns on our ability to “listen carefully.” Only two words deep into the Rule, we face our first challenge. Benedict did not live in a Twitter world. He had never heard of sound-bytes. He believed that living well required a focused and unhurried attentiveness to the words we read, and to the words we hear. If we do not “listen carefully” the rest of the Rule becomes more a blur than a blessing. And so does life.
We know there are people who have Attention Deficit Disorder, but we also know that ours is not an age of listening well. We crave a few words here and there—a text now and then—a summary rather than “the whole thing.” We do not listen well. We prefer to “cut to the chase” rather than “chew on the message.”
It may have surprised you when I wrote that we would spend a year (probably more) exploring Benedict’s Rule. We find ourselves saying, “It’s not that long!” True. But it is that deep.
Benedict has us in his grip with the first two words: “listen carefully.” We are not here to read the Rule or survey it; we are here to ponder it. There are people who have spent their lifetime meditating on the message, finding it to be a doorway to ongoing discovery. So, we will not hurry through the Rule. We cannot. Instead, we will pray for grace to do a very counter-cultural thing: to “listen carefully”—not only to the Rule itself, but to God who speaks to us through it, and through every moment of every life.
Oboedire 